Militants shoot dead four members of Shia family in southwestern Pakistan

Heavily-armed gunmen riding on motorcycles have shot dead at least four members of a Shia family and their driver in southwestern Pakistan.

Local police chief Mohammad Ishaq said on Wednesday that the drive-by shooting took place in Mastung district of Balochistanprovince.

The casualties were caused after gunmen sprayed bullets at the vehicle of the Hazara Shia family travelling to the southern port city of Karachi as they passed through Choto, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Balochistan provincial capital, Quetta.

Provincial Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti confirmed that three men and a woman from the Shia Hazara community were killed in the assault.

The attack came days after 75 Shia Muslims were killed and more than 300 injured in two subsequent blasts that rocked a densely populated area of the northwestern Pakistani town of Parachinar.